BERLIN – Worcester County officials, expressing concern over growing education costs, approved the school system’s Capital Improvement Program only after new roofs for two middle schools were removed from the planning document.
Commissioners said they should have been given more warning that roofs at Pocomoke and Snow Hill middle schools would need to be replaced in 2021. The work is expected to cost the county approximately $3 million.
“I have a real problem with being blindsided,” Commissioner Judy Boggs said.
Jerry Wilson, superintendent of Worcester County’s public schools, and Joe Price, the school system’s facilities planner, approached the commissioners Wednesday seeking approval of the Capital Improvement Plan for 2016 so that it could be sent on to the state.
The document outlines improvements planned in the coming years — the completion of the Snow Hill High School renovation, the replacement of Showell Elementary School, an addition at Stephen Decatur Middle School and new roofs for Pocomoke and Snow Hill middle schools.
Commissioners said they were aware of all of the projects except the new roofs. Price explained that officials believed the roofs would need to be replaced in FY 2019 and FY 2020. He said the work would cost close to $6 million but that the state should cover half of that.
“The thing I’m concerned about is the additional $3 million,” Boggs said. “You had to have known about this during our budget session this summer.”
Boggs said the county was only just now coming out of a recession that had forced officials to cut every department’s budget except that of the Board of Education.
“We’re using money that, if we’re true to ourselves, we should be using for all of the things we let go during the recession,” Boggs said.
Boggs questioned how close Worcester County was getting to its bond ceiling.
“If there’s any emergency that comes up in the county, we’re not going to be able to handle it,” she said.
Wilson replied that officials knew the project might need to be pushed back because of financial restraints. He said he was simply bringing it to the county’s attention now.
Boggs maintained that the information should have been given to county officials during the last budget process rather than sprung on them at this week’s meeting.
“Here we are in the middle of the budget and we’re changing our plans,” she said, adding that the county had never cut education funding and had not eliminated any teacher positions during the recession.
Price stressed that the Capital Improvement Program was a seven-year projection of school construction projects. The roofs, he said, were simply the next construction issue that would need to be addressed after the Stephen Decatur Middle School addition. Wilson agreed.
“The time frames are out there,” he said. “We’re being responsible stewards to bring this to your attention.”
Sonny Bloxom, the county’s attorney, also pointed out that it was a planning document and nothing is concrete at this point.
“You’re just putting it in the queue so people start thinking about it,” he said.
A motion to approve the plan put forth by Commissioner Louise Gulyas failed. Instead, the commission voted 5-1, with Gulyas opposed, to approve the Capital Improvement Program as long as it did not include plans to replace the two roofs.
Although Wilson tried to present a $660,000 budget request for the architectural design for Showell Elementary School, which is part of the approved Capital Improvement Program, immediately afterward, the commissioners told him they could not consider it because they had received no written request. They advised him to come back after a formal request had been submitted.
When contacted after the meeting, Wilson said he first requested the funding for the design of the new elementary school in August. He said at that time, the commissioners asked that the request be tabled until the county’s audit had been completed. Wilson said school system officials thought the audit had since been finished.
“Since our initial funding request in August …, we have had several meetings with the county executive pertaining to the rescheduling of our request for the design phase of the new school,” Wilson said. “There was no indication that a letter was needed when the funding request would be revisited by the commissioners or it would have been easily furnished. This unfortunate situation affects the students, teachers, parents, and community of Showell Elementary School.”
Wilson said a community input meeting for the project had already been scheduled for Nov. 12.
“This meeting must be cancelled, moving forward requires funding approval from County Commissioners,” Wilson said.